Conveyor belt systems are widely used to transport items in various industrial and automation applications. It is generally known to provide conveyor belts with holder elements for supporting items conveyed by the belt. For instance, numerous suppliers such as Brecoflex Co. have marketed polyurethane timing belts with welded on working profiles. With wide based profile applications, various working profiles are provided on belt systems with reliefs incorporated therein to retain the flexibility in the conveyor belt. Generally, however, the working profiles have been permanently welded to the belt. Thus, in order to change the profile, the entire belt needs to replaced and re-tensioned on the conveyor apparatus. It will be appreciated that welding the working profiles on the belt may be prohibitively expensive since an entire new belt would have to be purchased for each profile application. Moreover, significant downtime would be required to breakdown the conveyor apparatus and replace the belts each time a new application was implemented.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,183 to Lapeyre discloses a conveyor belt having insertable and selectable conveying members. For example, Lapeyre describes a conveyor belt which includes a plurality of individual modules joined together by pivot rods. As shown in FIG. 3, a conveying member has an attaching portion for being located within the recess of the module. FIGS. 19A and 19B show another structure for attaching a conveyor member to a base member of the module. As shown and described by Lapeyre, a conveyor member is permanently and securely bonded to a deformable member that is in turn crimped at the edges around the protrusions formed on the module. Lapeyre, however, does not provide an endless conveyor belt formed from a material having bending flexibility, but rather, discloses a plurality of individual modules joined together by pivot rods. Lapeyre apparently required a certain amount of rigidity in its individual modules in order to prevent failure of the joint connections between the conveyor member and the module. The embodiment shown in FIGS. 19A and 19B of Lapeyre also are not particularly adapted for convenient removal from the conveying module once attached. In addition, Lapeyre apparently fails to disclose at least one holder element removably interlocked with a locking member provided on a belt wherein the locking member provides a downward force on the holder element to hold the holder element against the outer surface of the belt.